What We're Writing Week: Jenn's Roughing It

First things first, the winners of Barbara Ross's giveaway are Judy Singer and Abigail!!! You can claim your prizes at:

barbaraannross at gmail dot com

CONGRATULATIONS!

JENN McKINLAY: My favorite part of the writing process is the first draft. I think I used to say that my favorite part was the revisions but I've had some pretty horrific revisions since then and now I love the first draft when there is no limit to my imagination and no one else has gotten their sticky fingers on my project. LOL.

I know I've asked before but, Reds, what's your favorite part of the process? First draft? Revisions? Copyedits? When you see your baby in the bookstore? 

Presently, I am roughing it, meaning I'm writing the rough draft of BOOKS OF DUBIOUS ORIGIN. Yes, I'm stepping into a new genre - cozy fantasy - which is described as low stakes fantasy and can be as fantastical or not as the author desires. There don't seem to be any rules. This suits me just fine. 

Because it's me, there is humor, as well as a slow burn sub-plotted romance, and a mystery...natch. 

One of the best parts of this new venture is the amount of research I've done, looking at pictures of all the amazing libraries in the world, searching for just the right image as my stepping off place. I found this one and knew THIS WAS IT!

The George Peabody Library in Maryland: Isn't it beautiful?

Photo shared from: https://www.loc.gov/resource/highsm.18385/ 

Here are more sources if you want to feel reassured that the love of books is alive and well in the world: 

Architectural Digest

National Geographic

Veranda

But back to the writing, because I can't share the manuscript yet - still roughing it! Here's the short synopsis, to give you an idea of where I'm headed, hopefully.

BOOKS OF DUBIOUS ORIGIN

A mysterious black book is sent to small town librarian Zoanne Ziakas. She has no idea who sent, why they sent it, or what she’s supposed to do with it. The volume is old and battered and unable to be opened as it’s locked by an unbreakable latch. Zoe thinks nothing of it until she wakes up in the middle of the night having pricked the tip of her finger with a straight pin and the book is on the kitchen counter beneath her hand. Zoe is positive she left the book on her bookshelf. Remembering her disturbing dreams, she fears the book was calling to her in her sleep, instructing her to prick herself with the pin. Yikes!

On the recommendation of her mentor Agatha Lively, Zoe takes the book to the Museum of Literature in New York City, where there is a secret collection for Books of Dubious Origin, known to the staff as the BODO. Housed several floors beneath the museum and inaccessible to all but the chosen few, the BODO is maintained by carefully vetted archivists and librarians. They say the books are full of secrets that can’t be deciphered and possess powers that must be guarded because of their ominous potential.

The volume Zoe received definitely fits the profile. When offering the book to the BODO department, Zoe is stunned to learn that she is descended from a family of witches who specialized in necromancy and the archivists think her book is the family’s grimoire. A confirmed skeptic about all things witchy, Zoe has no interest in discovering the secrets of the strange book. She just wants it gone.

When newfound evidence suggests that someone wanted the spell book so desperately that they murdered Zoe’s grandmother, and quite possibly her mother, to get the volume, Zoe has no choice but to leave her quiet village in Connecticut and join the staff at the BODO in an attempt to crack the book’s code and ensure that she is not the killer’s next victim.

Hopefully, by the time we're talking about what we're writing, I'll be able to share more!

What's the prettiest library you've ever seen, Reds and Readers?

September is Library Card Sign Up Month!

PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT

JENN McKINLAY: I remember my very first library card. I was nine-years-old. It was from the East Lyme Public Library in Connecticut and it was the only card I had in my little brown wallet for YEARS. I thought it was my first step into adulthood. No more checking materials out on my mom's card! Hey, I was a kid. I had no idea what adulthood actually entailed. Oy.

Now, in this weird age of book banning and personal attacks on librarians, I realize how critical having a library card is. 

Let's look at some of the perks:

FREE BOOKS AND EBOOKS - Yes, free, free, free!

ACCESS TO TECHNOLOGY - The Internet, databases, printers, copiers, 3D printers, maker spaces, and more!

QUIET ROOMS - I wrote many a book tucked away in a quiet room at the library.

FREE PROGRAMS - Concerts, cooking classes, computer classes, passes to local museums, etc!

SUPPORTS FREEDOM OF INFORMATION FOR ALL - A world without libraries is a very grim world indeed. 

Libraries are not just about borrowing the latest novels, getting recipes from cookbooks, or taking your kids to story time, they are a place to  exercise your right to information. All the information! 

As a former librarian, even if you're not a regular library user, I implore you to get to your local library and sign up for a card. That's the assignment and you have the entire month of September to get it done! 

Now, do tell, Reds and Readers, who has a library card? From where? And how many of you have more than one? (I have four)!

The Timrod Library: A Real Historic Gem in a Small Town by Dorothy St. James

      Jenn McKinlay: There is nothing I love better than a mystery about books and libraries, so I am delighted to invite Dorothy St. James to tell us all about what inspires her amateur sleuth Tru Beckett in the Beloved Bookroom Mysteries volume two, which drops on September 28th!

ORDER NOW

 

Dorothy St. James: When I started writing about Tru’s secret basement bookroom—complete with card catalog and book slips—in the Beloved Bookroom Mystery series, I started to pine for a library like the one I was writing about that I could visit in real life. I often do that. I wrote about a bean-to-bar chocolate shop in the Southern Chocolate Shop Mysteries and started to buy and savor high-quality chocolates. When I was writing the White House Gardener Mystery series, I took classes and became a master gardener. I suppose you could say that I tend to throw myself one hundred percent into my work.

 

Luckily for me, I didn’t have to go far to find a library like the one my intrepid sleuth had created. In fact, I found a wonderful library in the town where I grew up. Stepping through the doors of the Timrod Library in the Town of Summerville, South Carolina is like stepping back in time. Steeped in history, this private membership library has been operating in its current location since 1915.

 

 

At the Timrod Library, there are no computers. When you walk through the front doors, you’re greeted by a huge card catalog. The librarians who work there are welcoming and friendly and eager to help you find the book you didn’t know you’d come looking for. The collection has been carefully curated to meet the members’ needs. In the back of the library, a curious reader will be delighted to find the historic book collection containing two rooms filled with wonderful old books. If not for libraries like this one, some of these books might be forever lost.

 

Tru would certainly approve of the place if she had the time to visit it. But she’s been terribly busy dealing with the troubling rumors running around town about her. She’s also been investigating a mysterious lady who seems to have a connection to the used bookstore owner. There’s a vandal that keeps targeting the secret bookroom, a murder, and the most vicious apple pie contest this side of the Mississippi.

 

 

But don’t worry. Tru and her friends will be able to handle it all…maybe…we hope.

 

Does your town have a special library? What do you love about it?

 

 

To read more about Trudell Becket’s special library, be sure to check out A Perfect Bindwhen it comes out September 28.

 

A Perfect Bind

A Dead Body.

A Library in Shambles.

And a Town Drowning in Rumors.

 

"A librarian's guilty secret is imperiled when murder stalks the library. ... It’s not easy to guess the killer in this amusing cozy filled with romantic angst and peculiar characters." ~ Kirkus Review

 

 

 

Dorothy St. James is the author of several cozy mystery series. She lives in the Lowcountry of South Carolina with her sculptor husband. Dorothy is a member of Mystery Writers of America (MWA) and the International Thriller Writers (ITW) and Sister’s in Crime (SinC). This is her second Beloved Bookroom Mystery. 

 

Follow Dorothy Online:

Facebook: www.facebook.com/dorothy.stjames

Twitter: www.twitter.com/dorothywrites

Instagram: www.instagram.com/dorothymcfalls

Website: www.dorothystjames.com

 

National Dewey Decimal Day! by Jenn McKinlay

 Jenn McKinlay: It's quite possible that only librarian nerds will appreciate this day in all its Dewey glory, but given that I am a recovering librarian, I am full on celebrating today, which is... 

Named after its inventor, the Dewey Decimal System came into being in 1876, developed by Melvil Dewey, who was just twenty-one years old at the time. It's now used in over 200,000 libraries in 135 countries around the world. 

How does it work? Well, Dewey's rage for order broke non-fiction down like this, leaving fiction to be filed by author's last name.

Of course, it's changed exponentially beyond its infancy but can you imagine how they were categorizing books before Dewey? By color? Height? Number of pages? 

Having sat on a reference desk for years where people come in asking for the "green book" or the "blue book", let me just say, I can not imagine my former profession without Dewey. 

Of course the library also makes a fabulous setting for...murder!

There are a host of library based mysteries sure to delight library lovers the world over. I would list them here, but it's a long list and it's already been done by the fabulous website Stop You're Killing Me! (click on their name to go to the full list) but I will highlight a few of my favorites:

The Aurora Teagarden Mysteries by Charlaine Harris. Lawrenceton, Georgia, may be a growing suburb of Atlanta, but it’s still a small town at heart. Librarian Aurora “Roe” Teagarden grew up there and knows more than enough about her fellow townsfolk, including which ones share her interest in the darker side of human nature.

 
With those fellow crime buffs, Roe belongs to a club called Real Murders, which meets once a month to analyze famous cases. It’s a harmless pastime—until the night she finds a member dead, killed in a manner that eerily resembles the crime the club was about to discuss. And as other brutal “copycat” killings follow, Roe will have to uncover the person behind the terrifying game, one that casts all the members of Real Murders, herself included, as prime suspects—or potential victims...

The Cat in the Stacks Mysteries by Miranda (Dean) James. Everyone in Athena, Mississippi, knows Charlie Harris, the good-natured librarian with a rescued Maine coon cat named Diesel that he walks on a leash.  He’s returned to his hometown to immerse himself in books, but soon enough he’s entangled in a real-life thriller...
 
A famous author of gory bestsellers and a former classmate of Charlie’s, Godfrey Priest may be the pride of Athena, but Charlie remembers him as an arrogant, manipulative jerk—and he’s not the only one. Godfrey’s homecoming as a distinguished alumnus couldn’t possibly go worse: by lunch, he’s put a man in the hospital. By dinner, Godfrey’s dead.
 
Now it’s up to Charlie, with some help from Diesel, to paw through the town’s grudges and find the killer before an impatient deputy throws the book at the wrong person. But every last one of Charlie’s friends and co-workers had a score to settle with the nasty novelist. As if the murder wasn’t already purr-plexing enough...

 

The Library Lovers Mysteries by Jenn McKinlay (Hey, that's ME!!! Shocker, I know).      Lindsey is getting into her groove as the director of the Briar Creek Public Library when a New York editor visits town, creating quite a buzz. Lindsey’s friend Beth wants to sell the editor her children’s book, but Beth’s boyfriend, a famous author, gets in the way. When they go to confront him, he’s found murdered—and Beth is the prime suspect. Lindsey has to act fast—before they throw the book at the wrong person.

So, how about you, Reds and Readers? Do you enjoy a library based mystery? And do you love your local library? Give them a shout out if you do! Librarians need love!

Libraries by Sharon Dean

LUCY BURDETTE: Today we welcome Sharon Dean to the blog with a subject I bet we can all agree on--our love of libraries!

SHARON DEAN: When I was in elementary school, I devoured a series of biographies bound in orange. I read now that they were published by Bobbs-Merrill and that there were over two hundred of them. I could still lead anyone to the shelf where they sat waiting for me to select enough to keep me busy for the week. 

My first job was shelving books in that little library that I still associate with orange-bound biographies. When I was about thirteen, I'd walk the half mile to my job and walk home by myself in the dark. Those were days when we weren't as fearful. The biggest fear my parents had was that I'd go to my job and find the librarian dead. Her name was Bertha and I remember her as a shriveled old lady, though she probably wasn't much older than fifty. But she was ill with cancer. A strange smell often filled the library. I think that it was the smell of death. And, yes, she died while I still worked there, but thankfully not in the library.

I gave Bertha's name to the elderly, former librarian in my novel The Barn. I based that library not on the one of my childhood but on the one in the town where I raised my children. There's a wonderful story about that library. It had once been a church. When the church closed and joined the other Protestant church in town, there was a stipulation that the building had to be used for church purposes or income. My kids went to youth group there and they roller skated around the former, now pew-less, sanctuary. My daughter took her first dance classes there. 

When the town needed a new library, this old church seemed a perfect place. It would absolve the other church of the financial burden of its upkeep and provide the town the space it badly needed. But there was that clause in the will that related not to the building, but to the land the building was on. It took years, but two women eventually tracked down the heir, who was, I recall, a librarian himself. He gladly gave permission for the church to become a library. 

Bigger libraries are now available to me. The library at the college in the East where I taught, the library at the college in the West where I now live, the Carnegie town library in my town, the many libraries I researched in when I was an academic: the Beinecke at Yale, the Hay at Brown, the Houghton at Harvard, the Morgan Pierpont in New York City. But my heart is with the small libraries of my childhood and my young motherhood and of that little library that Charity Royall is in charge of in Edith Wharton's Summer. 

When I was researching for The Wicked Bible, my forthcoming novel featuring Deborah Strong, librarian and reluctant sleuth, I read two books on the history of libraries: Wayne A. Wiegand's, Part of Our Lives: A People's History of the American Public Library (Oxford UP, 2015) and Matthew Battles' Library: An Unquiet History (Norton, 2015). What an interesting history it is. Big or small, libraries deserve to be labeled "sacred spaces."

In this age of easy downloads, how important are libraries to you? What stories about a library would you like to share?

About the book: In 1990, Deborah Madison and Rachel Cummings, both seventeen, are enjoying a bicycle ride on a beautiful September day in New Hampshire. They stop at a local barn that no longer houses cows but still displays a wooden cow’s head that peeks out from a window in the rafters. Sliding open the door, they find Rachel’s boyfriend, Joseph Wheeler, dead on the barn’s floor.

The case lies as cold as Joseph for nearly thirty years until Rachel returns to New Hampshire to attend the funeral of Joseph’s mother. The girls, now women, reopen the cold case and uncover secrets that have festered, as they often do, in small towns. Against a backdrop of cold and snow and freezing rain, Deborah and Rachel rekindle their friendship and confess the guilt each of them has felt about things that happened in the past. The Barn is a story of friendship lost and recovered, secrets buried and unburied, and the power of forgiveness.

About Sharon Dean: Sharon L. Dean grew up in Massachusetts where she was immersed in the literature of New England. She earned undergraduate and graduate degrees at the University of New Hampshire, a state she lived and taught in before moving to Oregon. After giving up writing scholarly books that required footnotes, she reinvented herself as a fiction writer. She is the author of three Susan Warner mysteries and of a literary novel titled Leaving Freedom. The Barn, the first novel in a new mystery series, features librarian and reluctant sleuth Deborah Strong as she and her friend solve a thirty-year-old cold case. Set in the depth of New Hampshire’s January, The Barn is a story of friendship lost and recovered, secrets buried and unburied, and the power of forgiveness.

Release Day - ONE FOR THE BOOKS!

Jenn McKinlay: Happy Book Birthday to Me!!! Let me just say, this cover y'all...

Available NOW!

After forty-five books, I've been through the "birthing" of many many book covers. Thankfully, I have been blessed by the cover Gods and all of my book covers have been truly dazzling. From my stand alone Paris is Always a Good Idea (artist Vikki Chu):

July 2020

to my Bluff Point and Happily Ever After romances, like About a Dog and The Good Ones (designer Katie Anderson): 

through the cupcake bakery mysteries, kicking off with Sprinkle with Murder (artist Jeff Fitz-Maurice) and the hat shop mysteries, starting with Cloche and Dagger (artist Robert Gantt Steele), I have been one happy author.

But this cover. This cover blew me away. The concept for the Library Lover's mysteries began with two things, an open book and a view of the library in some way. Here they are:

After ten books, I was quite sure our brilliant artist, Julia Green, could not possibly come up with a way to showcase the vision I had requested. You see, I had just been to Paris and bought a pop up children's book of Beauty and the Beast because I always buy children's books in countries when I travel. No idea why. I just do.

When I landed back in the States, the first email was "How do you see the cover of One for the Books?" Of course, I replied, "Can it be a pop up book?" They were dubious but said it would be discussed. I forgot about it and then weeks later, I opened my email to see this: 

Did I approve, they asked. Um...HECK, YEAH!!! When the color version arrived, I about keeled over. To say the artist had far exceeded my expectations, would be a gross understatement. Truly, and appropriately, it was love at first sight.

So, Reds and Readers, what book covers have you fallen in love with at first sight? And that age old question, how much does a cover matter?

ONE FOR THE BOOKS: 

Wedding bells are ringing in the latest page-turning Library Lover's Mystery from the New York Times bestselling author of Word to the Wise.

Love is in the air in Briar Creek as library director Lindsey Norris and boat captain Mike (Sully) Sullivan are finally tying the knot. The entire town is excited for the happy day, and Lindsey and Sully's plan for a small wedding evaporates as more and more people insist upon attending the event of the year.

When Lindsey and her crafternoon pals head out to Bell Island to see if it can accommodate the ever-expanding guest list, they are horrified to discover a body washed up on the rocky shore. Even worse, Lindsey recognizes the man as the justice of the peace who was supposed to officiate her wedding ceremony. When it becomes clear he was murdered, Lindsey can't help but wonder if it had to do with the wedding. Now she has to book it to solve the mystery before it ends her happily ever after before it's even begun….

Also, I'll be appearing on Good Morning Arizona tomorrow 9/2 with anchor Olivia Fierro at 8:40 AM PST, let's all hope for no wardrobe malfunctions or poppy seeds in the teeth moments!

SW Florida Reading Festival

Announcement! The winner of Maddie Day's Murder at the Taffy Shop is Cindy C! Email me at jennmck at yahoo dot com and I'll hook you two up!

Jenn McKinlay: What a thrill to attend the SW Florida Reading Festival in Fort Myers! 

Such a fabulous book lover's event and so amazingly well organized! Shout out to Colleen, Jessica, Rachel, Katherine and Kathleen and all of the library workers and volunteers! Truly, it was AMAZING. I had the best time. A personal highlight was being on a panel with the fabulous Sonali Dev! If you haven't read Pride and Prejudice and Other Flavors, you should. 

Sonali and Jenn - We did not coordinate our outfits with
each other's book - I swear - but perfect, right?

Other authors included:

Michael Koryta, Lincoln Child, and Erik Larson

Kate Messner, Sara Varon, Monica Brown, and Sara Holland

and the ever fabulous William Kent Krueger. 

There were more wordsmiths but these were the only ones I could catch in the wild! LOL!

Why do I love book festivals so much? Because you get a chance to meet other authors, spend some time with your readers, and see another part of the country. I had never been to Fort Myers before, and I love it! And I will learn how to pronounce the Caloosahatchee River before I leave even if it leaves my tongue in knots!

Caloosahatchee River!

And now, I am going to fly home, wash my clothes and repack them because I'm off to San Diego for Left Coast Crime. If you're in the area, come find me! I am on two panels, On Thursday, I'm on the Mystery and Romance: Two great traditions that work arm-in-arm panel with:
Elizabeth Crowens (M)
Kate Carlisle
HelenKay Dimon
Kathy Krevat
Jenn McKinlay 

and on Friday, I'm on the Been There, Wrote That: The game that asks how well authors remember their own work?

Gar Anthony Haywood (M)
Reed Coleman
Lee Goldberg
Jenn McKinlay
L.J. Sellers

Given that I can't even remember what I wrote this morning, this should be...uh...fun? :)

Also, our Rhys will be there, too. What's your panel line up, Rhys?

Reds and Readers, tell us, what are some of your favorite book or author festivals or events? 

What Libraries Mean to Me by Jenn McKinlay

Jenn McKinlay: This post was supposed to go up on Tuesday, the release date of my tenth library lover’s mystery, WORD TO THE WISE, which is my forty-second book to date, but it didn’t. Why? Well, the short answer is I forgot. Yes, I forgot my book was coming out! It's mortifying, I know. The longer story is that I had a deadline the night before, I was half crazy with exhaustion, but then it just devolves into a bunch of whining and complaining so we’ll stick with the short answer.

"Riveting" --Publisher's Weekly

When I started writing the library lover’s series nine years ago, I had a wealth of experience to draw from. I had worked in libraries of all kinds since I was fourteen, my mother was a librarian, I have a degree in library science, and my husband and I even met in a library. Oh, also, my hooligans had their first brush with the law in a library – security caught them spitting off the fifth floor of the open floor plan library all the way down to the first floor water feature. It was quite the proud mom moment, let me tell you!

There has not been a time in my life where the library has not offered me sustenance of one kind, a quiet workspace, or another, story programs for my children, and lifted me up - free stuff! - on days that would have been dark and gloomy otherwise. Needless to say, I am a big advocate for libraries. 

Here are my top five reasons why I love libraries:

1.  The smell of the books. There is nothing so lovely as the smell of books, at least to me.

2.  My I.Q. jumps at least twenty points every time I walk into a library. I’m pretty sure I get smarter just by being in the building.

3.  Librarians are the coolest people I know. There’s a reason there have been roughly 150 librarians on Jeopardy!

4.  People watching. Second only to the airport, the library is my favorite place to people watch. 

5.  It has the potential to change your life. Want to start a business, learn a new language, travel, plant a garden, study poetry, find a scholarship? The library can help with all of that and that’s just the beginning. If you have a good library in your life, there is no stopping you!

How about you, Reds and Readers, how do you feel about libraries?

And if you're a library lover, don't miss this series! Set in a small coastal CT town, there is murder and mayhem aplenty, keeping Lindsey Norris, library director and amateur sleuth, using all of her librarian skills to crack cases and sometimes skulls. Just kidding, or am I?

Rhys on slaving away

RHYS BOWEN: part of my traveling this summer was research for next year's book. It will be set in Venice so of course I had to go there. Research, you know. Making sure I get everything right. Suffering for my craft.

Actually I work quite hard when I am researching. I know in advance what I need to find out. In this case I was very familiar with Venice having spent time there as a teenager. My parents used to rent a little villa in Treviso, on the mainland, drive across the causeway, park and give my brother and me some money,  "See you at five o'clock," they say and we had the day to explore.

How perfect that Venice never really changes. Some of the old shops are still there...the marbled paper shop, the fountain pen shop, the old tea rooms. 
I needed to find out about Venice in the 1930s so I headed for the famous library, part of the museum in St Mark's Square. Saying you are an author opens magical doors. I found myself in a small room with 2 friendly librarians bringing me books... And books.  And more books. All in Italian , of course.
I Understand quite well but a few hours of concentration made me go goggle eyed. So I started taking pictures of all the relevant pages.

Next I needed to choose a building that would overlook the shipping channel and had a top floor terrace. Riding around on the #2 vaporetto route helped with that.
And as for an old palazzo interior: our hotel was just what I required.

Of course there was the necessary viewing of art, the Bienale art exhibit, gelato tasting, Frito Misto on a dockside cafe and just having a coffee where life ( non tourist life) is going on. And lots of pictures. There are some things you can only get from being there. Venice is a city of birds, swallow making tiny Maltese crosses in the sky, seagulls shriek and swoop, pigeons flap. And a city of bells, tolling at odd hours on odd days so the air is often ringing with sound. And so many fascinating buildings. Did you know that this stairway was built so that a man could ride his horse up to the top floor?

One of my favorite places on Earth. And now I get to write about it.  How lucky is that?

So how do you do your research, especially if the story is set in the past? Is it important that you visit in person before you write about a place?

Bother the Librarian!

INGRID THOFT

Let me introduce you to my favorite librarians (after our own Jenn McKinlay, of course), Andrea Gough and Linda Johns.  They are both reader services librarians at The Seattle Public Library, where their jobs involve connecting readers with the right book at the right time.  Doesn't that sound like an amazing job?  They were kind enough to give me the scoop on their days in the stacks.

INGRID: The Seattle Public Library does much more than just provide books to Seattle’s citizens.   Can you tell me a little bit about the library’s patrons and the services they utilize?

The spectacular Central Branch

ANDREA: First, I will just say that I feel lucky to be a librarian in the city of Seattle, where so many people are readers. So we do have a ton of people who use the library to get books (print, digital, audio) and suggestions for what to read next - for themselves, and for their kids. Outside of books and reading, the library is still very much “the people’s university,” a place patrons come to learn new skills or just satisfy their curiosity.

Of course, our computers are still very in demand, by folks who may not have internet access or a computer at home, and we’ve tried to expand that type of service by assembling a collection of WiFi hot spots available for check out. I’m continually amazed at how busy our library branches are - along with the bus, it’s really one of the only spaces left where every part of society mingles. We try to do fun stuff, too - writing classes, bookish happy hours in bars, story times (for children and adults!), occasional concerts, book bingo, and summer learning.

LINDA: I hope people will keep in mind that libraries are the “people’s university.” You can dabble or dive in, keep up on civic discussions through programs, attend an author reading and feel like you’re coming away from it a bit smarter, a bit more enlightened. The same wonder you loved about libraries as a kid still holds true for all ages and stages of your life.

Linda in the stacks

IPT: I always recommend that visitors to the city take time to see the spectacular Central Branch, which was designed by architects Rem Koolhaas and Joshua Prince-Ramus.  What’s it like working in an iconic building?  Are there things you like best?  Least?

LINDA: Going to work in the Central Library in downtown Seattle feels like a privilege - and I truly love it.  It feels a bit like a European museum structure. It’s not for everyone, though, and particularly not for people who haven’t been in a library for years (or decades). Those people tend to cling to nostalgia about libraries, hoping for hushed atmospheres and dark corners. It’s the light that I like best in the Central Library. It’s apparently hard to find bathrooms in our library, though, based on the number of times each day staff get asked!

ANDREA: I love that it brings in people - both tourists and Seattle residents - who haven’t been to a library in years, although Linda’s right that that may clash with their expectations of a library. I love coming to work in this building, in part, because it is a testament to how much the people of Seattle support libraries. The navigation here is tricky, though, which I think can lead to frustration for people who just want to use the resources, not marvel at the architecture.

IPT: What do you wish library patrons knew about librarians?

LINDA: Remember that you can ask a librarian ANYTHING! You can walk into any library, anywhere and ask for a book recommendation, ask for ideas for your book group, or ask how to research a new vacuum cleaner in your budget. When school groups come in, we encourage them to always talk to the librarian. In fact, we often have them shout “Bother the librarian!” in unison. It’s a glorious thing to hear 30 middle-schoolers shout “Bother the librarian,” (although less enchanting when a lone adult does it) and we hope they remember that motto for the rest of their lives. 

ANDREA: Ditto. Also, I always want to know when a patron has read a good book and what they liked about it - come tell me! 

They're well-read and glamorous!

IPT: What would you like to know from readers?

ANDREA: How do you find your books?!? Where are you looking to find new authors and titles to read? Sometimes I feel like I’ve been surrounded by professional readers for so long that I don’t know how other people figure out what to read next.

LINDA: I want to know how readers make their choices, too! And how do they stay on top of things? I’m always mystified and delighted when I go to place a hold on a forthcoming title, feeling like I’ve got insider knowledge from an early review, and then find that 22 readers are already in the hold queue for that book. How did they know? How do you decide what to read when browsing online? Also, if I recommend a book to you, I’d love to hear what you thought. It helps me make a better book match for you in the future.

IPT: How do you figure out what to read next and what to recommend to us next?

LINDA: We look to trade reviews (Publishers Weekly, Booklist, Library Journal) for forthcoming titles and to keep up on the pre-publication buzz.  We also pay attention to Library Reads where librarians across the U.S. vote for their favorite new books each month. I feel super lucky to work in a reading culture where there are daily conversations with colleagues about what we’re reading and loving. I’m always eyeing Andrea’s book stacks for my next reads, too.
ANDREA: I’m pretty active on Goodreads, where I keep track of what I’ve read and also get to see what other people I know are reading. I also love NPR’s book coverage, especially their end-of-year Book Concierge; it’s a great discovery tool! I feel lucky to have a community of readers, too, friends, family, colleagues, and even strangers.

IPT: Last question:  Name a book you love recommending to patrons.

ANDREA: Just one?! I frequently recommend the Robert Galbraith (aka J.K. Rowling) series, beginning with The Cuckoo’s Calling. I feel like the books in that series fire on all cylinders: twisty plots, well-written, and I find the main characters Cormoran Strike and Robin Ellacott to be so interesting I just want to spend more time with them.

IPT: I love that series!  Great pick!

Andrea with one of her picks.

ANDREA:  In a very different direction, I love suggesting Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead by Sara Gran. That book and its sequel take a very specific kind of reader, one who is open to weirdness, unconventional methods of detection, and a sometimes unlikable character - but when I find those readers, I get so excited!

LINDA: The Ellie Rush series (starts with Murder on Bamboo Lane) by Naomi Hirahara stars a young L.A. bike cop whose connections to the rich ethnic neighborhoods of Los Angeles and aspirations to be a homicide detective combine into terrific character-driven mysteries. I’m always looking for younger sleuths and it’s a pleasure to recommend this series. 

Thank you so much Andrea and Linda, and now, it's time to "Bother the Librarian!"  They'll be checking in all day to answer your questions!